Winklevoss brothers choose BATS over Nasdaq for bitcoin ETF listing

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

Photo:

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Wednesday filed to switch the listing of their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund to BATS Global Markets from Nasdaq, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a listing three years ago.

The proposed ETF, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, will list 1 million shares at $65 each, according to the filing. That is up from a list price of $20.09 per share given in the first filing.

The filing did not say why there was a change in trading venues, but over the last year BATS has emerged as one of the fastest-rising trading venues for ETFs. BATS is the second largest U.S. equities market operator.

If approved by the SEC, the Winklevoss ETF would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity.

The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN.

Gemini Trust Company, the Winklevoss brothers' trust company, which runs a bitcoin trading venue, has been designated the custodian of the ETF. There was no designated custodian in the previous filings.

Gemini operates a trading platform for bitcoin and for another digital currency, ether.

The ETF's bitcoin will be valued using the Gemini's spot price as of 4 p.m. Eastern time each business day, according to the SEC filing.

Bitcoin's value has been highly volatile, having peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange.

It has since recovered, hitting a more than two-year high of nearly $780 last week in the run-up to the British referendum whether the country should leave the European Union. As of late Wednesday, one bitcoin was worth $634.24 <BTC=BTSP> on the Bitstamp platform.